The Important Thing (a McRoll in the REAL World story)
by sammy1026
Summary: It's time for Elizabeth's auction.


_Mari & Ilna: What can I say? I'm enjoying this adventure every bit as much as I was on day one. Maybe more._

 _REAL Worlders-thanks for all the enthusiastic support. You guys are the best._

* * *

 **The Important Thing (1/1)**

"Aunt Elizabeth, we have a surprise for you!" Jacob bounced on the balls of his feet, practically vibrating with excitement. "And I've known for days and didn't tell," he added proudly.

"Honey, Aunt Elizabeth is busy getting ready for the auction," Jenna reminded her youngest son as the group of people gathered in front of Kamekona's shrimp truck continued to grow steadily. "We can talk to her later."

"It's fine." Elizabeth smiled brightly. "I always have time for you. Besides …" She consulted the clipboard in her hand. "I think we're pretty much ready to go."

Jacob looked hopefully at his mother who nodded her ok with an indulgent smile. "Go ahead."

"Ok so you know how …" Jacob began but then stopped suddenly. His entire body stilled.

Elizabeth could see the wheels turning in his head and waited patiently while he worked out whatever was bothering him.

"Wait," he said, hands out in front of him in the universal sign for stop. "I think Kaitlyn should be the one to tell." He turned towards his sister. "Go ahead."

"That's ok, Jacob." Kaitlyn smiled affectionately. "You tell."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

She smiled. "Positive."

"Ok then." Jacob turned back to Elizabeth and the bouncing returned. "You remember we told you about our summer fun day change jar?"

"I remember." Elizabeth sat down at a picnic table and leaned over to put herself more on Jacob's level. He clearly had some big news to share and she wanted to give him her full attention. "You were going to count it the other night, right? What did you decide to do?"

Jacob's bounce became more pronounced. "We decided to change what we did with our change this year."

"He worked on that joke all day," Cody whispered to Jess who chuckled in return.

"Change how?" Elizabeth asked.

"We wanna donate it to Tutor Time!" Jacob managed to get out the words before breaking into a full body dance which culminated in a ninja kick.

"You … what?" Elizabeth's face registered shock.

She looked from Jacob to the rest of the Allen children who stood shoulder to shoulder, bright smiles in place, and finally to Jenna. She couldn't quite wrap her mind around what she was hearing. The kids had been talking for months about what they wanted to do with the money in their change jar this summer. There was a new idea seemingly weekly but the excitement level of the children remained the same through them all. They loved their end of summer family fun day. "Are you sure you want to do that?"

Five heads nodded in enthusiastic agreement.

"It's $100.37." Kaitlyn proudly held out a check Jenna had written after she deposited the change in the bank. "It's our biggest total ever."

"That's … I …. I don't know what to say." Elizabeth's eyes dampened as she took the check. "This is incredibly generous." She beamed at the children she'd become so attached to since moving to the island. "You are five of the most special people I've ever had the pleasure to know."

She opened her arms and all five Allen children moved in for a group hug. When they pulled back Elizabeth looked at the check again. "I just can't get over this," she said. "You were all looking so forward to what you were going to do this year."

"Do you remember last year when I got stuck on that section in history?" Dylan asked. "My teacher tried to help me but no matter what she said I still couldn't get it. I just couldn't remember the dates."

Elizabeth nodded. "That can be hard."

"It was for me," Dylan replied matter of factly. "But then you showed me how to think of history as a story instead of just a bunch of dates. And once I started doing that the class was easy and I felt smarter."

"You were always smart," Elizabeth said sincerely. "You just needed a new way to look at things."

"Thanks," Dylan said proudly. "When it came time to vote I figured giving up one day of fun wasn't a big thing if it means you can help some other kids feel the way I did when my history grade started going up."

Of all of her children the one Jenna least expected to hear such words from was Dylan, which made those words that much more powerful. She beamed with pride.

"I will do everything in my power to make sure this money accomplishes just that," Elizabeth promised.

* * *

"$100!" a perky brunette at the back of the crowd called out as the bids rolled in on Steve's self defense classes auction item. Kamekona started the bidding at $10 dollars and it skyrocketed to triple digits almost immediately.

Catherine patted Steve's knee as he squirmed with discomfort. Even with his wife by his side and his daughter in his lap several women were still bidding with naked desire in their eyes.

"They realize they can sign up for free at the Y, right?" Carrie teased.

"105!" a voluptuous blonde countered.

"110!" the brunette shot back.

"We have ten slots available," Kamekona reminded the crowd. "This will be a group class. Not private one-on-one tutoring."

He's witnessed a lot of women throwing themselves at the Big Kahuna over the years and knew what lengths they were willing to go to.

Cody pointed at Steve, Catherine and Angie, the very picture of a happy little family. "These women should be ashamed of themselves," he grumbled to Jadon.

"My mama would say they need to spend more time in church," Jadon agreed.

"115!" A new bidder entered the fray.

Carrie turned to look at the new entrant into the McGarretitis sweepstakes. "She's certainly doing her part to keep the silicon industry in business," she snorted causing Catherine to hide a laugh behind her hand.

"I have $115," Kamekona called out.

"$120!" a new bidder called out.

Steve's chin dropped to his chest. "This was a bad idea. I should have just written Tutor Time a check."

Angie giggled when she heard her father say tutor, a word she found hysterical.

"$125!"

"$135!"

The bids continued to fly in.

"$300!" A voice boomed from the back of the crowd and every head turned to see Frank Kayama holding his bidding paddle high in the air. "Times 10. I'll take all of them."

Kamekona looked out a sea of disappointed faces and when no one chimed in he gaveled the item closed, happy to get through the item with no further drama.

"That was very nice of you," Steve said as Frank approached. "But what are you going to with ten passes for Women's Self Defense classes?"

"Tara is working with an organization that helps women who have been through all different kinds of hard times get back on their feet," Frank said, referencing their neighbor on the beach who had been a victim of domestic violence. "I'm gonna give them to her and let her hand them out as she sees fit."

Catherine smiled. "That sounds like a fabulous idea."

* * *

"Hey, I heard what you guys did," Chin said as he took a seat beside Dylan who was watching the bidding on Kamekona's helicopter tour offer.

"What?" the boy asked.

"Donating your summer fun day money to Tutor Time," Chin reminded him.

"Oh that." Dylan shrugged. "I'm glad we decided to do it. Next year I'm gonna put some of my chore money in. We're aiming for $150 and then we're gonna donate it again."

"That's a very nice thing to do," Chin said. "You should all be proud of yourselves."

Dylan had been peppering Chin for weeks with ideas for the end of the summer fun day which it was clear he was looking forward to. So to see the boy's absolute conviction that he and his siblings had made the right decision made Chin proud of the young man Dylan was becoming. The fact that he also thought it wasn't a praise-worthy move, but simply the right thing to do, spoke volumes.

"Thanks," Dylan replied matter of factly before his face brightened. "Look, my robot offer is up next."

* * *

"Mom just told me about the kids donating the summer fun day fund," Catherine said as she sat down beside Jenna. "That's really sweet."

Jenna smiled proudly. "They talked about a couple of different options but as soon as Kaitlyn brought up the possibility of donating it to Tutor Time they were all on board."

Catherine smiled. She wasn't surprised the initial suggestion had been Kaitlyn's. Or that the others had quickly agreed. "You have five very amazing children."

"I can't disagree with you there," Jenna said proudly.

Suddenly a happy squeal of "Co-ee" split the air as Cody tossed a laughing Angie over his head.

"He loves it when she says his name," Jenna confided.

"She adores him," Catherine smiled. "She adores them all. We all do."

"I don't think I say it often enough," Jenna's tone turned more serious, "but I can't thank you and Steve and Danny and Chin and Kono enough for asking to spend more time with the kids after Shop with a Cop. It's changed their lives. It's changed all our lives." She smiled a teary smile. "It's had such a big impact on who my kids are."

"Your kids were already amazing before they ever met us," Catherine said adamantly. "Because they had a great mom."

"You're gonna make me cry," Jenna chuckled softly.

"Hey, Mom." Jacob skidded to a stop in front of Jenna. "Kamekona said he would teach me to make shave ice. Can I do it? Pleeeeeeeeease?!"

"Sure," Jenna smiled.

"I'll be really careful around the big blade that shaves the ice," Jacob promised.

"The what?" Jenna looked slightly alarmed. "I think maybe I should go check out what's going on."

Catherine snorted. "That sounds like a good idea."

* * *

Kaitlyn sat down beside Carrie who was enjoying an order of garlic shrimp at one of Kamekona's picnic tables. "You're wearing the bracelet I made you," she smiled.

"You bet I am." Carrie wiped her mouth with a napkin. "It's one of my favorites."

"I can make you another one," Kaitlyn offered. "In a different color."

"I'd love that." Carrie smiled at the young girl. "And because we're friends I wanted to make sure to tell you what a great thing I think you and your brothers and sister did donating your fun day money to Tutor time."

Kaitlyn blushed. "Thanks!"

"That was very nice of you and I know Aunt Elizabeth really appreciated it," Carrie said.

The auction was wrapping up and Elizabeth took to the stage to thank everyone for coming out and giving generously.

"I'd like to say a special thank you to the Allen children, Cody, Casey, Dylan, Kaitlyn and Jacob," Elizabeth said with a broad smile, "who chose to donate their spare change fund to Tutor Time. It was our first donation of the night and it got everything moving in the right direction. I can't thank them enough. Please raise your hands kids so everyone can say thank you."

Kaitlyn leaned into Carrie and raised her hand barely to her shoulder as the crowd burst into applause. Cody, Casey and Dylan all waved somewhat shyly but not Jacob.. He broke into a full body dance which ended with a deep bow.

"And I would just like to say that I was very inspired by the keiki," Kanekona said, still wearing his microphone from the auction. "They reminded me …" he put his arm around Esther, "reminded us, of what's really important. So Esther and I have decided to donate all the profits from our food sales this evening to Tutor Time."

"That's amazing!" Elizabeth beamed and wrapped both Esther and Kame in a hug then turned and sought out the Allen children in the crowd. "See what you guys started? This is fantastic. And thanks to you, to all of you, the children on the island are a few steps closer to getting the tutoring help they need to keep them from falling behind. And that's the important thing. They thank you and I thank you as well."

 **THE END**

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